A Responsibility All Christians Share

An army chaplain had just finished a Mass for the servicemen in a cathedral.  The theme of his homily was: “Be proud of your Catholic faith; don’t be ashamed to practice it in public.”

After the Mass, a sailor obviously moved by the homily, stopped the chaplain in front of the cathedral.  “Would you hear my confession, Father?” he asked.

“I’d be happy to hear it,” said the chaplain.

With that the sailor knelt down right on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral.  “Never mind kneeling,” said the chaplain, “people will stare.”

“The heck with them, Father!” said the sailor.  “Let ‘em stare. I’m proud of my faith.”

The sailor’s spirit of witness may have been a bit over enthusiastic, but he certainly had the right idea. 

In today’s reading, Jesus tells his disciples, “You will be witnesses for me… to the ends of the earth.”  Jesus’ command includes all of us, not just the missionaries, not just the priests and religious – but all of us.

By our baptism and our confirmation we are all called to be witnesses to Jesus.  Our baptism and confirmation go even further.  They call upon us to do even more.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Proclaim the good news to all creation.”  That too is something all of us must do.  Proclaiming the good news about Jesus is a responsibility we all share by our baptism and confirmation.

The question is: How can the average person preach about Jesus in today’s world?  Do we have to climb up the buses and trains to preach to the passengers before they can get off the bus or train?  Or do we get a megaphone and stand at street corners to castigate passersby?

Here’s an example of how ordinary person proclaims the Good News.  Ruddell Norris was a conscientious young man. He found it hard just to talk to people, much less to discuss religion with them.  Then one day he got an idea.

Ruddell did a lot of reading, and he was aware of the many pamphlets about the Catholic faith.

So, he decided to set aside a part of his weekly allowance to buy pamphlets.  Ruddell placed his pamphlets in places where he thought people would pick them up and read them.  For example, he placed them in waiting rooms and reception areas. 

One day a young woman, who was a friend of his family, told his parents how she became a convert and how her husband returned to the Church.  “It all started with a pamphlet,” she said.  “I found it in the hospital waiting room.”

You can imagine the boy’s excitement when he learned of the impact just one of his pamphlets had.  The story of Ruddell Norris points to an important point about proclaiming the Good News.

There are many ways to do it.  We can proclaim it directly as Ruddell did.  Today many people use the new technology of internet, Facebook, website, and cellphone to spread the Good News. 

Or we can proclaim it less directly, for example, by praying and giving financial support to the missionary activity of the Church.

Some parishioners do it in a more economical way.  They go to the parish office or sacristy on Mondays or Tuesdays and collected all the excess parish bulletins and put them in the waiting rooms of doctors or reception areas or of hospitals and other places.

The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven does not celebrate the end of Jesus’ presence in the world.  On the contrary, it celebrates a change in the way Jesus is present in the world. 

It celebrates the fact that Jesus is no longer present in the world in a physical way.

Jesus is now present in the world through his mystical body in a spiritual way.  He is present through his Church: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name,” Jesus said, “there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18: 19-20)

Jesus is now present through us, his followers.  The Ascension therefore, marks not only a change in the way in which Jesus is present in the world, it also marks a change in Jesus’ activity in the world.  Jesus no longer acts through the members of his physical body, but through the members of his mystical body.

The Feast of the Ascension is one of the most important feasts of the entire liturgical year.

That’s why we celebrate it in a special way.  We might compare the Feast of the Ascension to the passing of a baton from one runner to another in a relay race.   On this day, over 2,000 years ago, Jesus passed the baton of continuing his work on earth to his followers.

According to Fr. Nil Guillemette, S.J., people in this world are divided into three major opinions or philosophies: those for whom this world is everything and heaven is nothing, those for whom heaven or the afterlife is everything and this world is nothing; and finally, those (the Christians) for whom heaven is already here in this world, wherever there is love  (for “God is love).  The glorification of Christ’s humanity is very significant in this respect.

Far from inviting us to give up our earthly task in the open-mouth expectation of a heavenly compensation to our limitations and failures, the Ascension points to our earthly mission.  The way we complete that mission is by witnessing to our faith, as the sailor did, and by proclaiming it to others as Ruddell did. 

This then, is the twofold responsibility that the Feast of the Ascension sets before us.  Each of us must respond to this responsibility in our own way, us, as the Holy Spirit inspires.

In his glorified state, Jesus is now present to all time and all space,  very much interested in each one of our lives, “working with his disciples” as today’s Gospel tells us.  If we truly believe in him, we too will perform powerful signs wherever we live and work.  The greatest of these is our patient love for our brothers.

Let’s close with these words of Jesus to his followers in the Sermon on the Mount.  They take on special meaning for us in the light of today’s feast.

“You are the salt of all mankind.

  But if salt loses its saltiness,

  there is no way to make it salty again.

  It has become worthless,

  So it is thrown out and people trample on it.

  “You are the light of the world.

  A city built on a hill cannot be hidden…

  In the same way your light must shine before people.

  So that they will see the good things you do,

  And praise your Father in heaven.”